king at me. "You will have to
go."

Buildings with red roofs are not marked as such on military maps, and I
bent glumly over the map board. However, houses were exceedingly few in
this neighbourhood, and the chateau on the other side of the railway
could be ruled out immediately. It was known as "The White Chateau,"
and I had noticed it in daytime. Besides, it had been so heavily
shelled that our companion brigade had evacuated it two days before.
"It's pretty certain to be somewhere in this area," observed the
colonel, bending over me, and indicating a particular three thousand
square yards on the map. "I expect that's the place--on the other side
of the railway," and he pointed to a tiny oblong patch. I estimated
that the house was three miles from where we were. It wanted but five
minutes to midnight.

I went outside, and flickering my electric torch stumbled across ruts
and past occasional shell-holes to the copse, three hundred yards away,
that sheltered the officers' chargers. I crackled a way among twigs and
undergrowth until the piquet called out, "Who goes there?"

"I think your groom's here, sir," he said, and the trees were so close
set that my shoulder brushed the hindquarters of a row of mules as he
piloted me along. "Are you there, Morgan?" he shouted, pulling open a
waterproof ground-sheet that was fastened over a hole in the ground.
"No--go away," called a voice angrily. "Where's Morgan sleep? Mr ----
wants him," persevered the piquet.

We found my groom in another hole in the ground about thirty yards
away. He listened sleepily while I told him to get my horses ready
immediately. "Do you want feeds on, sir?" he asked, with visions
apparently of an all-night ride.

There was no moon, and I gazed gratefully at the only constellation
that showed in a damp unfriendly sky--the Great Bear. I let my horse
find his own way the first few hundred yards, until we struck a track,
then we broke into a trot. The swish and plop of gas shells in the
valley towards which we were descending made me pause. I calculated
that they were falling short of the railway crossing I wanted to reach,
and decided that a wide sweep to the right would be the safest course.
We cantered alongside some ploughed land, and the motion of the horse,
and the thought that with luck I might finish my task quickly, and earn
a word of commendation from the colonel, brought a certain sense of
exhilaration. The shelling of the valley increased